Refrigerator door



Marh 3G, 1954 R s, GAUGLER 2,673,377

REFRIGERATOR DOOR Filed Jan. 9, 1951 2 Sheets=Sheet 2 Patented Mar. 3U,1954 REFRIGERATOR DOOR Richard S. Gaugler, Oakwood, Ohio, assgnor toGeneral Motors Corporation, Dayton, corporation of Delaware Ohio, a

Application January 9, 1951, serial No. 205,208

2 Claims. 1

This invention is related in a general way to refrigerating apparatusbut more particularly to magnetic door latching arrangements capable ofpulling the door closed tight enough to thoroughly seal the dooropening.

It is an object of my invention to provide a magnetic door latchingarrangement in which the magnetic materials are more eiciently used toobtain the maximum door closing pull within the door sealing range.

It is another object of my invention to provide for the magnetic meansupon a door or door jamb a simple full floating universal self-aligningmounting which will assure maximum pull by eliminating any inefficiencydue to misalignment.

It is another object of my invention to provide for the magnetic meansupon the door or door jamb a simple ornamental readily accessibleadjusting means so that the magnetic means may be adjusted to obtain themaximum pull at the desired point in the door sealing range.

These objects are attained by providing magnetic assemblies in thecorners of the door and door jamb on the side opposite the hinged edge.These magnetic assemblies preferably include a cylindrical permanentmagnetic piece topped by a concentrating pole piece and enclosed in acup shaped iron cladding member. The assembly is y held together by aring of nonmagnetic material which breaches the gap between the polepiece and the rim of the iron cladding member. One of each cooperatingset of magnet assemblies is mounted upon a resilient diaphragm to giveit a full floating self-aligning mounting. The cooperating magneticassembly is provided with adjustable threaded mounting. To open theldoor, a prying and actuated force multiplying lever a1'- rangement isused.

Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparentfrom the following description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, wherein a preferred form of the present invention is clearlyshown.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view in elevation of a household refrigerator embodying oneform of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view with the door closed taken along the lines2-2 of Figs. 1, 4 and 5;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view with the door closed taken along the lines 33 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged view in elevation of the upper left hand corner ofthe door jamb shown' in Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged view in elevation of the corresponding corner ofthe door shown in Fig. 1; and l Fig. 6 is a sectional View of the doortaken along the lines 6-6 of Fig. 1 showing the prying multiplying handlever arrangement.

For the purpose of illustrating my invention, I have shown my magneticlatching arrangement applied to a household refrigerator cabinet 26having a food compartment 22 containing a rerigerating unit 24 forcooling the food compartment and if desired, also enclosing a freezingcompartment. The front edge of the food compartment 22 is provided witha rectangular door jamb 26. To the right edge of the door jamb, there ispivotally connected a door 28. Around the inner perimeter of the door28, there is provided a sealing member 30 of a rubber-like material.These features are all conventional in present day householdrefrigerators.

I have found that moisture and frosting difiiculties are aggravated bypoor sealing of the refrigerator door. This is partly due to the factthat the sealing members are comparatively stili and the door latch doesnot pull the door shut tight enough to press the sealing member intocontact with the door jamb at all points around its perimeter. Toincrease the closing force of the mechanical latch, would cause thelatch to be more diflicult to operate and also would require a higherclosing force to close the door.

I have overcome these difficulties by providing a highly efficientmagnetic latching means which will permit the door to be closed withouteffort and will hold the door shut with the force of about pounds toinsure adequate sealing of the door. Through a multiplying pryingleverage action, the door may be opened with a force of only about fourpounds.

Referring now more particularly to Figs. 1 and 2, the outer shell 32adjacent its front edge has connected thereto the breaker strips 34 ofheat insulating material such as a suitable thermoplastic material uponthe four sides of the door jamb. In the upper left hand corner, there isprovided a special corner section 36 also of a suitable thermo-plasticmaterial. This thermoplastic corner member 36 is provided with anaperture 38. Behind this aperture 38, there is fastened a cup shapedmember 40 having an extruded threaded coaxial aperture 42 in the bottomof its cup shape. Within the cup shaped member 40 is a cup shaped ironcladding member or outer pole piece 44 having a relatively thin rim andheavier end portion provided with a threaded projection |46 whichthreads through the extruded aperture 42 in the cup shaped member 40.

` Coaxially located within the cup shaped iron cladding member 44 is acylindrical permanent magnetic member 446 preferably of the materialknown as Alnico. This permanent magnet 46 is provided with aconcentrating inner pole piece 48. The assembly is held together andlocated by an inner flanged ring having an inner flange which fits theshoulder of the inner pole piece 63. This ring 5t also has an innerportion which ts'between the permanent magnet 4t and the adjacent rim ofthe cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece 44. This member5|? is made of nonmagnetic material such as brass or stainless steel andis tightly held in place by three long screws |52 which extend throughthe bottom of the cup shaped iron cladding member and thread into thering 5i). Fastened to the outer edge of the rim of the cup shaped ironcladding member or outer pole piece 44 is a ring 52 which has its rimknurled so that it may be readily used to turn the entire magneticassembly so as to adjust the location of the magnetic assemblyrelatively to the cup shaped member lil through the connection of thethreaded projection |46 with the threaded aperture 42.

Cooperating with this adjustable magnetic assembly is a rather similarmagnetic assembly which is resiliently mounted upon the door through afull floating universal self-aligning mounting. The door 28 is providedwith breaker strips of a suitable poor conducting material upon its foursides Within the outer shell of the door. The upper right hand corner ofthe door, as considered when the door is open, is provided with aspecial corner piece 5t oi some suitable thermo-plastic material havingheat insulating properties. This corner piece 53 has an aperture 5t forreceiving the magnetic assembly. The corner piece 5B is also providedwith a circular rim 52 which surrounds the aperture 53. A resilientdiaphragm 54 is clamped upon this circular rim 52 by a metal ring '136and eight screws E8 which thread through the ring 55 and the diaphragm55 into the corner piece 58 shown in Figs. 2 and 5. This diaphragm 34 isprovided with concentric circular corrugations so that it providessubstantially universal iiexibility Within a reasonable range.

The center portion of this diaphragm G4 is provided With an inturnedflanged aperture. This anged aperture is tightly held between the narrowrim of the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece I and thering l2 which is fastened by three screws i4 which extend through thebottom of the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece le andthread into the ring 12. The ring i2 has an inwardly extending flangewhich rests upon the concentrating inner pole piece le provided upon thefront face of the cylindrical permanent magnet member 'i8 which ispreferably of the material commonly known as Alnico.

With this magnetic assembly so mounted upon the diaphragm member Se, itis universally selfadjustable so that the inner pole .pieces 48 and itand the iron cladding members or outer pole pieces 44 and 'it may bemagnetically drawn together in perfect alignment so that their faceswill contact in absolutely ilush contact to insure maximum door closingpull to insure thatthe sealing member 3i] at all points is in sealingcontact with the door jamb 2S provided upon the outer shell 32 of thecabinet 20. Even though powerful, I find that one of such magneticassemblies is not suicient to insure good sealing of the sealing memberall the way around the door. The reason for this is that the `door ismade 4 of sheet metal and therefore naturally bends or warps somewhatunder stress.

Therefore, in order to insure satisfactory sealing, I place a second setof magnetic assemblies at the lower left hand corner of the doom jamband the corresponding corner of the door. To do this, I providea cupshaped `member B0 which is sealed or otherwise bonded to the inturnedflanged member 82 of the flanged aperture in the lower left hand cornerof the door jamb 26. This cup shaped member is provided with a coaxialextruded threaded opening at the bottom of this member which receivesthe threaded projection 8l! in the bottornof the cup shaped ironcladding member or outer pole piece 86.

Resting upon the bottom of this cup shaped iron cladding member 86 is acoaxially located cylind'rical shaped permanent magnet '88 preferably ofthe material commonly known as Alnico. It isV provided with aconcentrating inner pole piece 9 5 held in place by a ring 92 ofnonmagnetic material which is held in place by three screws St whichextend through the bottom of the cup shaped iron cladding member 6 andthread into the ring @2. A knurled ring 56 is provided upon the outeredge of the rim of the iron cladding member or outer pole piece 86 so!that the entire magnetic assembly may be turned to adjust the locationof its threaded projection 86 in Vthe threaded extruded aperture 83 inthe cup shaped member 8B.

Upon the adjacent portion Yof the Adoor 28, there is provided acooperating magnetic assembly which is provided with a universalmounting connection with the door structurein a manner similar to themagnetic assembly provided in the upper corner of this door. As shown in.detail in Fig. 3, there is provided a resilient diaphragm |2l havingits outer rim clamped between a pair 1 of rings |23 and |25 which arefastened to the metal structure |21 of the door 28 by eight screws |29.Within the rim portion, the diaphragm i2! is provided with concentriccircula-r corrugations to give it flexibility. It is provided with aninturned iianged aperture.

The flange of this aperture is clamped in between the inner face of therim of the cup shaped iron cladding member or outer pole piece |3| andthe ring |33 of nonmagnetic material. The ring 33 is provided with aninwardly turned projecting shoulder which rests upon the shoulder of theconcentrating inner pole piece |35 and is loa cated on the face of thecoaxially located cylindrical permanent magnet r|37 preferably of Alnicomaterial which is held against the inner bottom face the cup shaped ironcladding member or outer pole piece |3|. Three screws |39 extend throughthe bottom of the iron cladding member |3| and thread into the ring |33to hold the ring |33 in place and to clamp the assembly to the diaphragml2 I. magnetic assembly is provided with resilient selfaligning fullfloating universal mounting to make it possible for the pole pieces 90and |35 and the iron cladding members B6 and |3| to fit completely flushtogether so that maximum attraction is assured.

To make it possible te provide a lever handle |43 extending upwardlyfrom its pivot pin |45 so that it may be readily grasped at aconventional height. Very .close to the pivot pin |45, there is provideda push rod |41 having a projecting end portion |45 of a 'thermoplasticmaterial. The :handle |43 has a hollow projection |53 adapted to engagethe outer end Through this mounting, the

easily open the door, IV

of the push rod |41 so as to push the end |49 into engagement with theplate |5| on the door jamb 28 to pry the door 28 into the open position.Since this projection |53 is very close to the pivot pin |45, there is alarge mechanical advantage when the handle |43 is pulled at its upperend. This makes it possible to pull open the door with a very lightforce such as four pounds. The pivoting of the handle |43 is limited bythe engagement of the projection |53 with the adjacent surface of thedoor 28. Although this arrangement gives the push rod |41 only a limitedtravel, this is all that is necessary because the magnetic force reducesvery rapidly and the remainder of the door opening can be easilyaccomplished by very light direct pull upon the upper end of the handle|43. The door, of course, can be closed without any diiliculty becauseit is pulled to the closed position with great force by the magneticassemblies.

I have used permanent magnets in all the magnetic assemblies because thegreatest and most efcient attractive forces can be obtained in this way.If a lesser attractive force is suiiicient, it is obvious that one ofthe magnetic assemblies with the one permanent magnet could be usedalone in cooperation with an armature made of a plain piece of magneticmaterial.

While the form Aof embodiment of the invention as herein disclosed,constitutes a preferred form, it is to be understood that other formsmight be adopted, as may come within the scope of the claims whichfollow.

What is claimed is as follows:

1. A door including an outer face member, an inner member having aperipheral portion connected to the adjacent edge portions of the outerface member, insulating means between said in ner and outer members,said inner member having an aperture therein, a magnet located in saidaperture, said magnet including a cup shaped iron cladding membercontaining a permanent magnet having a pole piece thereon, a ringextending between said pole piece and the rim of said cladding member,an annular resilient supporting diaphragm member, having its inner edgeclamped between said ring and said rim and having its outer portionfastened adjacent the periphery of said aperture.

2. A magnetic device including a permanent magnet, a substantally cupshaped iron cladding enclosing the permanent magnet and having itsclosed portion in contact with the adjacent portion of the permanentmagnet, the rim of said cladding being narrower and being spaced fartheraway from the permanent magnet than the remaining portions of thecladding.

RICHARD S. GAUGLER.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberName Date 2,180,615 Serge Nov. 21, 1939 2,209,809 Burton July 30, 19402,240,035 Catherall Apr. 29, 1941 2,252,144 Taylor et al. Aug. l2, 19412,446,336 Mark et al. Aug. 3, 1948 2,475,226 Ellis July 5, 19492,508,305 Teetor May 16, 1950 2,519,435 Byrd Aug. 22, 1950 2,565,891Sherman Aug. 28, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 72,979 NorwayJan. 12, 1948 456,154 Great Britain Nov. 4, 1936

